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Originally Posted by PINKGREAT  So, do you mean by that that we are talking about a concrete brandy, bottle of...? But the 'the man with the scar' hero is at the bar at the moment of speaking. Please, excuse me for my misunderstooding. |
I was - and I hope I made the liberty I was taking with Somerset Maugham clear - adapting the context. If the hero was at a bar, he would normally (in BE) say 'a Brandy'; I think Mike said, in an earlier post, just 'Brandy' would do in some contexts in AmE.
But if a man had gone into the bar and just said 'Get me a drink - something strong', and the barman said 'Whisky? Brandy? Gin?...' - then the answer would be 'Brandy'.
b